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Health Ministry revises blood donation restrictions for Koreans returning from Europe

Published: 04 Mar. 2025, 17:12

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

A person donates blood in Daegu on Feb. 6. [YONHAP]

A recent revision to blood donation rules on Tuesday lifted restrictions for many Koreans that had spent time abroad in European countries.

Korea's Health Ministry originally prohibited blood donations who had stayed five years or more in Europe, since 1980, to concerns regarding Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the continent.

It also stopped those who had spent over a month in Britain between 1980 and 1996 and those who had been in Britain for three months or more from 1997 until now from participating in blood donation.

The rules have now been altered, applying restrictions only to those who had stayed in France and Ireland for five years between 1980 and 2001, as well as those stayed in Britain for over three months between 1980 and 1996.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is known to be caused by the consumption of beef from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy — or mad cow disease — which can lead to rapid brain damage.

The disease is caused by prions, which affect the proteins in the human body.

According to the ministry, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has occurred 233 times worldwide since its discovery.

“The Health Ministry anticipates that some 16,000 people deemed ineligible blood donors would now be able to donate their blood through the regulation revision,” said Jung Tong-ryoung, a Health Ministry official. Jung noted that the previous scheme was an “excessive regulation.”

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]